MOSCOW - The leader of Russia's Orthodox Church said Friday that he was saddened by the bloodshed in the Middle East ahead of the church's most sacred celebration.
Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on Sunday, about one month later than the religious holiday was marked on the Western church calendar.
"Violence and killing are always a tragedy," Patriarch Alexy II said in Moscow, according to Interfax news agency. "We see the bloodshed in a land which was sanctified by the life, preaching, suffering and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross, as a gross sin and it makes us especially sad."
The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly drawn attention to the seize at the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus' birth and one of Christianity's holiest shrines.